Self-threading needle.



UNITED STATES PATENT iatented August 4, 1905.

OFFICE.

LOUISA P. BUN NELL AND WILLIAM NICHOLS, TOLEDO, OHIO, ASSIGNORS OF ONE-THIRD TO GEORGE K. DETWILER, OF TOLEDO, OHIO.

SELF-TH READING NEEDLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent'No. 735,458, dated August 4, 1903. Application filed November 3, 1902. Serial No. 129,943: (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, LOUISA P. BUNNELL and WILLIAM NICHOLS, citizens of the United States, residing at Toledo, in the county of Lucas and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self Threading Needles; and We do declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

In the patent granted to us for self-threading needles February 13,1900,No. 643,398, we describe and claim a needle having a cut at a right angle to the axis thereofand coinciding with the bottom of the eye of the needle, the out having a flaring mouth with upper and lower rounded corners. While this needle in practice is found to serve its purpose admirably, experience has shown that the angles of the portions of the needle adjacent to the transverse cut tend to catch slightly upon the thread and fibers of the fabric as the needle is pushed into and withdrawn therefrom.

. Our invention relates to and its object is to provide means for overcoming the objections and difficulties here indicated.

A further object of our invention is to reduce to a minimum the friction of the needle in the fabric and to so form the needle at the mouth of the transverse cut above referred to that the angles thereof shall not when the needle is in motion touch the fabric at all.

We attain the objects above referred to by means of the devices and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and shown and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which- Figure 1 a side elevation of a sewing-ma-Q chine needle embodying our improvement;

and Fig. 2a front elevation of the same. Like letters of reference indicate like parts throughout the drawings.

In the drawings, a is the shank, b the shaft, and c the eye, of the needle. Extending upwardly from both sides of the eye are formed the usual long and short grooves in the shaft of the needle.

dis a transverse cut or opening leading from the side of the needle into the eye 0. The Iongitudinal axis of the needle is at a right angle and perpendicular to this cut. The cut d leads to and coincides with the end of the eye next to the point and is barely of sufficient width verticallyto permit the passage of the coarsest thread designed to be used with the needle. The front of the depending lip formed bythe eye and the transverse out, together with the ledge formed by said out at the bottom of the eye, are concaved inwardly beyond the general exterior surface of the needle, as at 6, Fig. 1. These two portions are likewise concaved inwardly and equally at their two sides, as shown at f, Fig. 2, that portion of the needle back of the inner vertical wall of the eye re= taining its usual nearly semicylindrical shape.

The operation of our device is as follows: The needle being properly secured in place in the sewing-machine, the horizontal thread is pressed laterally against the front of the needle at the concaved portions 6 f. Now a very slight vertical movement of the needle or of the threadwill cause the thread, guided by the inwardly-curved exterior surfaces of the needle, to slip sidewise into the out 01 and into the eye at the extreme bottom end of the eye. The upward pull of the tension devices of the sewing-machine and the normalposition of the thread now hold the thread above the out (i, so that the thread does not escape through the cut.

The advantages of the construction here de scribed are, first, the needle may be threaded much more easily th an heretofore; second,the outer angles of the transverse cut do'not come in contact with the fibers and threads of the fabric sewed upon, since these angles are entirely within the curved plane of the general surface of the needle, and, third,the needle moves within the fabric with less resistance than heretofore.

Having described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The needle herein described, the same having a cut at a right angle to the perpendicular In testimony whereof we affix our signaaxis of the needle, and coinciding with the tures in presence of two witnesses.

bottom of the eye, the dependent lip and the ledge formed by the eye and said transverse cut having their fronts and both sides con- I caved inwardly Within the curved plane of the I Witnesses: general surface of the needle, substantially as F. E. OALKINS, and for the purpose specified. 1 F. F. OHMERT. 

